I want to buy a new lcd tv to replace a crt one.
We recently put up a satellite dish to get Freeview tv. This will be our first Freeview enabled LCD tv. I wondered whether you can just plug and play a satellite receiver into a Freeview enabled tv as I don't want Christmas morning to be a disaster if it needs codes or extras. Could someone please let me know whether I need anything more.

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Good evening Ma'am -

Most Freeview enable HDI ready LCD TV's are ready with a decoder built in for freeview via ether (terrestrial) and not satellite decoder.

So if your area is already covered by terrestrial freeview 100% then ditch the satellite and all is well. Well don't ditch it literally as you will soon get bored with all the tack on TV.

I live about 30 miles form London and freeview via terrestrial is useless around here so I have a cheapy sat decoder from Maplins. And in my case we will not have full freeview terrestrial until 2012 (one of the last).

So there - glad you asked?

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Old Gits Know Best ... I think

Freeview is thru' a TV aerial
Freesat is thru' the same dish as Sky (but nothing to do with them so you don't need a sky subsciption). This is the only place for ITV's HD offering.

Most LCD/Plasma TV's come with Freeview and the latest Pannys come with Freesat as I found out 2 days after buying a new Panasonic (very good TV tho' )

Sorry to hear that Ski. I guess it was inevitable that some manufactures would start including sat decoders but it is very limited. I have a 42" Sony LCD here (not that I watch the rubbish on it) that has terrestrial built-in and a cheap Maplin Sat decoder which is great - for not a lot, I can get Saudi News though which is just .... boring.... along with several thousand other useless channels.

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We live in a poor area as far as Freeview via the aerial, even using a high gain one, that's why we bought a £60 kit and went Freesat on one tv. Now the tv has broken and has been temporarily replaced with a portable but we want a 26" tv for tv and gaming. What do we do then, because I want to use the satellite still as that is the clearest option? Our satellite kit was a £60 wonder from Maplins and it's great!

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I would say tell the salesman what you have and what you expect to happen on Christmas day.

Then you can add a bit on the bottom explaining what will happens if doesn't

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Sound advice Scruff!!

It will work with the sat decoder you have now Bluall.

The price of LCD TV's is falling at one Hell of a rate, paid around £1,500 for the Sony here along with £700 for the Sony surround sound 'thing' that have never fathomed out how it works So whatever you buy it will be half the price next week.

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John,

It'd be simpler to stick with a crt!

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You are probably right Luise, whatever an crt is.

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Old fashioned cathode ray tube tv!

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I'm so glad you told me that, I feel a better man already. perhaps I should change that to person

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CRT, IMO, is still better quality over LCD/Plasma until you get to HD. My 15yr old CRT broke for the 2nd time so I decided to bite the bullet so to speak and move in to the 21 century

If you want to get an LCD/Plasma and in a low Freeview area then either get a Freesat box and any LCD/Plasma or get the Panasonic with Freesat built in. I have the 37inch LCD (with freeview) and its excellent. Any bigger than 42inch then the Plasma version is better.

Have a look at Sound and Vision for very good prices - I somehow paid less than whats on the web now but I did buy it from the shop

Thanks Skiking,

I'm still on crt tvs so it's unknown territory and although I like our 37" Panasonic crt the 70+ kg weight would be a struggle to move to the bedroom and I'm not sure the chest of drawers would cope tbh! I agree, I always like Panasonic for tvs. The last tv lasted for well over 16 years.

I assume that HD means you need an HD Freesat receiver box unless you don't mind using a normal Freesat receiver and not getting hd quality tv. Maybe someone in the know could verify that. Hd receivers are silly money, near £200, so I'm not tempted unless there's a much cheaper one around that I've not seen. I can get a satellite receiver for about £30 from Maplins, or a kit with quad lnb and cable and 2 extra sat boxes for £120.

I've been looking at 26" tvs on Ebuyer, they have good deals on there for around £250. I noticed they can be plugged into the dvd, pc and game console at the same time which is good.

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I have a 42" Samsung Series 6 HDMI LCD TV with Freeview in it but im using SKY-HD

Yeah your right ski, you need an HD freesat enabled box to get the HDMI interconnect needed for the HD stuff. Im currently running 2 humax boxes, they are both HD but the one upstairs has a built in HDD, i cant fault them.